Watching You
by OnTheBrinkOfInsanity
Summary: Jara fic. Based around Jerome finding out that his dad is in prison. One-Shot. Read and Review!


He watched as she slipped her books into her bag. He watched with a pain in his chest. The same kind of pain he got whenever he watched her. It hurt him deeply to know that she didn't like him as much as he liked her. He had just settled on loving her from afar. Mick was long gone by now, but he still didn't feel as if she even acknowleged him. And being the spineless coward that he was, he didn't have the guts to say anything to her. Well, he could _talk_ to her, just not... about his feelings for her. And boy, these feelings were _strong. _Mara just had this way of drawing him in to anything she was doing. Jerome was pulled out of his thoughts by a petite hand, waving in front of his face.

"Jerome! The bell's gone. Why are you just sitting there?" Mara was standing in front of him, a perfectly arched eyebrow upon her beautiful face. Suddenly, he realized the stuation that he was in and smiled weakly.

"Oh, err... daydreaming. Yeah, just uhh..." he trailed off. Mara just rolled her eyes and left him. To his _utter _disgust, Poppy was waiting outside the classroom for her. It was strange that his sister was so close to the girl that he loved. They were looking for information about his father but that topic of conversation nauseated him. He shuddered, collected his things and followed her out of the door. Only, he didn't actually follow her... no matter how much he wanted to.

****/****/****/****/

Jerome sat in the Anubis common room, once again, watching Mara. But he was doing it discreetly this time. Behind a book. Yep_, The _Jerome Clarke was hiding behind a book, watching a girl. Mara was sitting with Joy on the couch talking about... whatever it was that girls talked about. Jerome didn't know. And, frankly, he didn't _care. _He just liked being in her presence. Even if he was sitting at the dinner table, his nose in a book that he didn't know the name of. He was inturrupted, again, by a hand on his shoulder. He jumped to see that it was Alfie.

"Dude, the book's upside down." he said before patting his shoulder and exiting through the door. Jerome sighed and put the book down. Instead he decided to listen in on Joy and Mara's convosation. From what he could gather, this Friday was "girl's night" and Amber had arranged for them to all go to the cinema. It didn't intrest Jerome at all. He just liked listening to her talk. He couldn't help but wish that it was him that she was talking to, not Joy. After a while, Joy said that she had to go and Jerome realized that they were alone. Mara spoke up, to relieve the obvious tension between the two.

"So, Poppy and I have been looking for your Dad online. We couldn't really find anything, so I looked a bit deeper." she said.

"Oh yeah? What did you find?" he asked trying to act like he wasn't freaking out inside. She started getting fidgety and he could see that what she was about to say wasn't going to be any good.

"Well..." she dragged out the word whilst wringing her hands. "_Ithinkhemightbeinprison."_ she said it all very fast and it took Jerome a moment to register what Mara had just said but when he did his automatic response was, "Does Poppy know?"

"No, I wanted to tell you first and I figured that you wouldn't want Poppy to know." she said it calmly, as if she had rehearsed it beforehand. "Do you want to visit him?" Jerome scoffed at that ridiculous suggestion.

"No! Why would I?" he paused for a second. "Should I?"

"Yes! I mean _I _would want to. Just see what he has to say, I'm not saying you should forgive him right away, just listen." she answered. Jerome went quite, obviously deep in thought. Mara must have sensed his hesitance.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she whispered, never making eye contact. At this simple sentece, Jerome's eyes lit up, his heart started beating three times as fast as it normally would and his stomach did a back flip. During all of this, he tried his hardest to stay calm on the outside.

"If-if you want to." Calm didn't always work.

"I do want to." Mara smiled as she got up. "See you tommorow then."

"Jaffray." he nodded. She rolled her eyes and once again left the room.

****/****/****/****/****

Mara sat on the couch with Joy talking to Amber who was sitting on the floor plaiting Nina's hair.

"Oh yeah! What movie do you guys want to see Friday?" Joy asked.

"Anything with Zac Effron in." Amber answered concentrating on Nina's hair. Mara and Nina agreed enyhusiastically. Patricia, however, did not.

"What is it with you guys and Zac Effron?" she said, falling into the seat next to Joy. "I think I'd prefet Johnny Depp. Pirates are cool."

Amber started listing reasons why pirates were '_so not cool' _as Mara checked her watch and saw that it was time to go.

"Oh, I've got to go." she said, collecting her things.

"I'm going out with Jerome." she responed when they asked her why.

"Ooh! Jara!" Amber squealled as Joy, Patricia and Nina all chorused their own '_ooh's'_. Mara rolled her eyes. "Relax, it's not a date."

"Well where are you going?" Nina asked.

"Prison." Mara said simply, leaving the other girls lost for words.

****/****/****/****/****

Jerome paced his room, running his hands through his hair repeatedly. Constantly looking in the mirror and wondering if he looked anything like his dad. _Man, paranoid or what? _he thought to himself. Eventually he heard a knock on the door.

"Are you ready?" Mara is stood at the door and even in this situation, he can't help but admire how wonderful she looks.

"Yeah." he says weakly. "Let's go." But Mara stops him before he can leave the door.

"Listen Jerome, there's nothing to be worried about. Its understandable to feel nervous but just remember, i'll be there with you the whole time." she finishes by giving his shoulder a small squeeze. Jerome makes a bold move and pulls her into a tight hug. Much to Jerome's delight, she hugs back, twice as hard.

"And you said it wasn't a date." Amber tuts from behind Mara, her arms folded over her chest. The pair pull away and glance somewhat awkwardly at each other.

***/***/***/***/***TimeSkip***/***/***/

Jerome releases a breath that he didn't know he had been holding in. He thought of it as a sigh of relief. He felt as if a huge weight had been taken off of his shoulders. Grinning, he looked down at Mara and wasn't surprised to see that she was smiling too. He let out another sigh, this one bracing himself. He was about to do the unthinkable. Yep, he was going to tell Mara how he felt.

"First of all, I want you to know how grateful I am. I don't think I can thank you enough for what you did for me." he could see Mara's slight blush but nevertheless, he ploughed on. "I would never have had the courage to go if you were not there with me."

"I really didn't do anything Jerome. I just sat there and I'm sure that you wou-" Jerome silenced her with a kiss. A kiss in which Mara happily responded to. When Jerome pulled away, Mara looked dazed.

"No Mara, you did so much more."

_**Hope that you liked it. It is just a one shot. There won't be anymore chapters although i'm thinking of writing another Jara story.**_

_**Sorry about the part where Jerome found out that his dad was in prison. That episode hasn't come out in the UK yet so I didn't know how it happened.**_

_**~Insanity ;)**_


End file.
